Stuffed Cabbage Rolls - Low Calorie

Stuffed Cabbage is another one of those dishes for which many ethnic groups have their own special version. Whether it's sweet & sour or savory, cabbage rolls are fun to make and are really delicious.

For this recipe I used Israeli couscous in place of the standard white rice. To raise the fiber content and lower the carbs you also replace the rice with cooked barley or bulgar wheat.

For amazing details CLICK on the photograph.

Ingredients...

• 1 pound ground meat (use any ground beef, pork, veal, or turkey)
• 1/2 cup grated onion
• 1/2 cup grated carrot
• 1/2 cup cooked (choose one) Israeli couscous, rice, barley, OR bulgar wheat.
• 10-12 cabbage leaves (the outside leaves are the ones you want, they're bigger and easier to roll)
• 1/2 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 2 cups tomato sauce
  

Here's how you do it...

1. Cut the stem out of the cabbage.
2. Steam the cabbage in 2 inches of water until you can loosen and remove the outer leaves, one by one.
3. In a mixing bowl combine the ground meat, cooked couscous, grated carrot & onion, and salt.
4. As each cabbage leaf comes out of the steamer cut the thick spine from the leaf.
5. Form a long meatball in your hands and place it on the cabbage leaf.
6. Roll, folding the edges in as you go t forming a small tight packet.
7. Place the cabbage roll into the bottom of a dutch oven packed tightly next to one another with the loose end of the cabbage roll face down.
8. If you end up with more meat than cabbage leaves just form meat balls and place them on top of the pile of rolls. Same thing goes for any left over cabbage. Just cut into chunks and lay it on the top of the rolls.
9. In a medium bowl mix together the canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, and Splenda Brown Sugar Blend.
10. Pour this mixture over the cabbage rolls.
11. Bring to gentle boil, cover, and reduce the heat to simmer for 2 hours.

Cabbage rolls freeze well. I pack them 2 per zip top sandwich bag, each with a spoonful of the juice and then freeze the bags on a baking sheet. When frozen I transfer the small bags into a larger freezer bag. I freeze the excess juice in ice cube trays and likewise, when frozen, transfer the cubes to a zip top freezer bag. With prepared food stored this way you can have a wonderful and hot meal in just minutes.